Question: What is the smallest prime factor of 1821?
Solution: 1821 is clearly not even, so 2 is not a factor. We find that 3 is a factor, since the sum of the digits of 1821 is $1 + 8 + 2 + 1 = 12$, which is divisible by 3. Since we want the smallest prime factor, we are done; our answer is $\boxed{3}$.